Stereotypes

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Stereotypes
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In groups-

1. Come up with as many stereotypes as you can
2. Are any of them positive?
3. What is the point of stereotyping?

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Positive v. negative stereotypes

• French love their food
• Italian men are good lovers
• Black people are good at sport

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What is a stereotype?

• It is a process of over simplification
• It characterises a whole group of people giving
  them qualities which may be found in one or two
  individuals (eg. all black people are good at
  sport / all Scottish people are tight / all gay
  men are camp)

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Stereotypes about disability are.

• Based on superstitions, myths and beliefs from
  earlier times but are still around today and are
  rooted in deep seated and childish fears about
  disability

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How do stereotypes help the producer and the
audience?

• Write down 2 or 3 ways they are useful to the
  producer and the audience
• Write down 2 or 3 problems with stereotyping.
• Why do stereotypes exist?

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Benefits to the producer

• Allows them to condense a lot of complex
  information into a character who not only is
  easily recognised but also simple to deal with
• e.g. baddies in films, the best friend in Action
  films, characters in Sit Coms- Joey, Phoebe in
  Friends )
• Producers dont need to establish characters

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Benefits to the audience

• They can recognise characters quickly
• It acts as a short cut in a new sit com - hes
  the one that will ..
• They know how to respond to certain characters
  (hes the funny one, hes the evil one)

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Problems with stereotyping

• Dehumanises people by denying them the complex
  psychological make-up that people have
• It reduces them to a few generalised personality
  traits (e.g. gay men as bitchy funny and
  camp)
• Allows for scapegoats minority groups get
  blamed for problems in society.

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Reasons for stereotyping

• Reflects power relations within our society- it
  subordinates certain groups
• It involves some element of ridicule
• Often the groups are economically or socially
  subordinate?

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How and why do stereotypes change?

• They reflect wider contexts.
• Changes in legislation affect stereotypes (e.g.
  Disability Discrimination Act 1995)
• In 1981 International year of disabled person
  awareness campaign
• It becomes old fashioned or not PC to keep
  certain stereotypes
• Activist groups fight on behalf of Minority
  groups to draw attention to the extent of the
  negative stereotyping (e.g. Feminist movement,
  Raspberry Ripple Awards).
• Producers in the media come from the minority
  group and can shift the representation of these
  groups (e.g. DPU at BBC, Ash Atalla from The
  Office and Extras)

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What stereotypes are there for people with
disabilities

• List the different stereotypes you have seen?

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Stereotypes of people with disabilities

1. Pitiable, pathetic and object of violence
2. Sinister of Evil
3. Super Cripple
4. Laughable- butt of the joke
5. Non sexual
6. Burden

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Pitiable and pathetic or object of violence

• This patronising stereotype comes from feelings
  of superiority of the non disabled to the
  disabled.
• Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol with little crutch
  and limbs supported in an iron frame.
• Reinforced by Telethons and Charity ads to raise
  money for the disabled.
• Whatever Happened to Baby Jayne (Joan Crawford
  and Bette Davis)

Passive, pitiable, dependent, helpless, victim
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Sinister of Evil

• This is a persistent stereotype
• William Shakespeares Richard III (hunch back)
• Dwarf in Rupelstilsken
• Witches in Hansel and Gretel
• Captain Hook in Peter Pan
• Many villains in films are given disabilities.
• Dr Strangelove (wheelchair using scientist , Dr
  No (with 2 false hands)
• Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street)
• Psychiatric patients are often represented as
  frightening and dangerous

frightening, sinister, dangerous, unpredictable,
grotesque, evil
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Non Sexual

• Disabled people are almost always portrayed as
  totally incapable of sexual activity.
• Coming Home- was a good example of couple where
  the man had become a paraplegic in Vietnam
  develop an intimate sexual relationship
• More recent examples challenge this- Book Group,
  Murderball etc

Non sexual, impotent,
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Super Cripple

• Super human attributes.
• Ironside- wheelchair bound detective has
  extraordinary mental powers.
• Newspapers and magazines often feature the
  extraordinary achievements of disabled persons
  who overcome so becoming acceptable.
• Marathons, Paraolympics, and water skiers with
  one leg, Murderball
• It encourages the stereotype that disabled people
  have to overcompensate to win acceptance.
• The other side of this stereotype is heaping
  excessive praise on the disabled person for
  carrying out a perfectly reasonable act.

Extraordinary, Over compensating, super human,
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Laughable Butt of the joke

• Un PC humour about victims of tragedies.
• Laughter is used to deal with difficult or
  embarrassing situations.
• Hear No Evil, See No Evil- featured a blind man
  and a deaf man thrown together to solve a crime
  with hilarious consequences both are the butt
  of the joke
• Forrest Gump- a man with learning difficulties.
• Lee Evans- pretending to have CP in Theres
  Something About Mary.
• Andy in Little Britain.

Funny, weird, unusual
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Burden

• All disabled people are helpless and need to be
  taken care of by normal people.
• The Burden image objectifies and dehumanises
  (does he take sugar)
• Beauty and the Beast- set in New York portrays
  the disabled, disfigured outcasts as having to
  live a subterranean life it also emphasises the
  unacceptability of the different and that they
  are dangerous and must be segregated.
• Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• The In Valids who are not of perfect genetic
  design in Gattaca

Helpless, need looking after, dependent, outcast
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Pick a stereotype

• Find texts that include this stereotype
• Find texts that challenge this stereotype
• Think about why the stereotype has changed (wider
  contexts)